accountability

Accountability

The responsibility of the person or organization responsible for a task to take credit for all positive outcomes and blame for all negative outcomes. Accountability is desirable in finance and economics because it promotes efficiency. See also: Transparency.

accountability

an employee's RESPONSIBILITY for the exercise of certain duties and the requirement to report to his superiors on his performance of them. In recent years, many managers have attempted to strengthen lines of accountability so as to achieve improvements in the job performance of their subordinates.

One approach to this has been th creation of PROFIT CENTRES. The profit performance of these subunits of the organization can be closely monitored by organizational leaders, thereby increasing the accountability of those working in the profit centres. In so far as creation of profit centres involves a measure of decentralization of decision-making, decentralization of responsibility and AUTHORITY can be coupled with increased accountability. See MANAGEMENT, ORGANIZATION.

Champions of "more accountability" make these organizations major targets, which certainly have deficiencies in accountability and certainly do not meet the standards of accountability for the best-functioning democracies of our era.

The SSA, for instance, determines measurable accountability by having the senior leaders select the applicants for its Leadership Development Program (LDP) and its Advanced Leadership Program (ALP) in a competitive process.

Perhaps the most broadly applicable provisions of the legislation are found in Title VIII, the Corporate and Criminal Fraud Accountability Act of 2002, which establishes penalties for altering documents.

The proposal strengthened consumer power and choice, created buying groups for individuals and small employers, called for greater quality accountability by managed care organizations and shifted Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries to a defined contribution consumer choice approach.

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